4 Publishing Articles in Academic Journals

Boden(3)-04.qxd 11/9/2004 11:08 AM Page 21 Publishing Articles 4 in Academic Journals Having covered the basics, we turn our attention in this chapter to some of the complexities and details of how to write journal articles and get them published in refereed academic journals. What do we mean, ‘academic journals’? We find that undergraduate students often get confused about the difference between academic literature and other sorts of publication when doing literature reviews. This is often because we haven’t been specific enough about what we mean by ‘academic journals’. What we do mean are publications, on paper or electronic, which contain scholarly articles that present some or all of the following: research findings, new knowledge, new theorisations or interesting syntheses or re-presentations of existing knowledge. The authors and the readers are usually academics, but not necessarily so. Academic journals are, therefore, the ‘chat rooms’ for the exchange of knowledge and ideas and for debate. In fact, this is exactly the reason why the scientific community invented academic journals in the eighteenth century. They were, and remain, an important mechanism by which geographically disparate scholars can communicate and share theirSample thinking. Journals have a particular structure. They are always edited by one or more academics, who take overall responsibility for the shape and character of the journal. They generally also have editorial boards, usually drawn from the international academic community and chosen to reflect the range of interests of the journal. They may be more or less actively engaged in the processes of publishing the journal. Journals come out regularly, usually three or four times a year, and from time to Boden(3)-04.qxd 11/9/2004 11:08 AM Page 22 22 Writing for Publication time may have special issues edited by guest editors on particular themes. In most cases, however, each edition of the journal will present a fairly eclectic mix of papers, but all within the broad remit of the particular journal. Another common misconception, but this time more often among postgraduate students and less experienced faculty, is that articles in professional journals are on a par, in research terms, with refereed papers in academic journals. Be in no doubt about this, among academics, academic journals are much more prestigious. But of course, writing for appropriate professional audiences is a means of achieving good dissemination of your work to those who might use it in theirs is important. Some people think that writing for professional audiences is a good apprenticeship for doing academic writing. Indeed, early publication in professional journals can boost people’s confidence, stimulate access to research fields and also help people experience the personal satisfaction of getting into print. But, these benefits are sometimes all too elusive and outweighed by two very serious risks. First, the two genres are quite distinct, albeit related, forms. Professional journal articles based on academic research are really trans- lations of academic writing for lay readerships. That is, they repre- sent an attempt to render academic work more accessible to a wider audience. Logically, therefore, it is not possible to write for professional audiences before the academic thinking and writing have been done. Further, given that the genres are quite different, the writing skills you need to write for one do not necessarily translate into writing for the other. Second, some inexperienced academics spend so much time and effort on writing for practitioners that they never engage with academic audiences, convincing themselves that they have done the academic job when really they haven’t. A further problem for such people is that the qualitySample of their writing for professionals is frequently rather poor because it is not grounded in the rigorous thinking and peer review processes that academic journals demand and provide. In short, putting the professional before the academic means that this stuff simply doesn’t go through the academic mill and is therefore unrefined and unimproved. Boden(3)-04.qxd 11/9/2004 11:08 AM Page 23 Publishing Articles in Academic Journals 23 Jennifer had established herself as a successful writer for the technical, professional press prior to commencing her research career. For these audiences, and for editors who paid by word length, she had developed a style that was very terse and directly factual. When she started her PhD, it took a long time for her to adapt her writing style to the more discursive, carefully argued approaches that are needed in academic writing. Why publish in academic journals? As an academic, you will probably have been subject to quite strong pressure from your institution to publish in academic journals, often because more publications mean more external funding for the university. Pressure to publish may also come from competition for internal promotion. However much universities say officially that they promote people for their teaching excellence, this is often patently untrue. Teaching is virtually always a secondary consideration when committees think about whether someone should be promoted or not. Whilst these pressures to publish are very real and often quite painful, we believe that you should not lose sight of the many much more positive reasons for doing such work. • Publishing is academic journals is usually an immensely personally rewarding activity that can offer you a sense of progress, ‘closure’ as you finish one phase of your research, achievement and pride in yourself and your work. • If you don’t publish your work in academic forums you are failing to engage in wider academic debates or add to the body of publicly availableSample knowledge in your field – which is one of the primary purposes of undertaking research in the first place. Remember that reading other people’s refereed work helps academics to develop their own thinking, research and teaching. • The rigorous review processes that your work will undergo will give it a certain standing or ‘quality mark’. It is rare for papers to emerge from the review process unimproved – even if bruised authors are sometimes reluctant to admit it. Readers are likely to trust something that is as well written as it can be and which they know has been subject to scrutiny. Boden(3)-04.qxd 11/9/2004 11:08 AM Page 24 24 Writing for Publication This is especially the case if you are trying to influence non-academic readers who might use or engage with your research. • Quite simply, publishing helps you to build your reputation and that of your research and field. This may be crucial to getting new jobs or promotion. • If you make a contribution to the research income of your depart- ment and/or university by achieving a good publication record, you will indirectly benefit by being a member of a more conducive and better-funded research environment. • A good publication record will also help when it comes to winning external research funding by making you look more credible. We deal with this subject in Winning and Managing Research Funding. What can I publish? The first key consideration in deciding whether to publish or not is whether you have anything worthwhile to say at this point. Premature publication is frustrating, messy and really to be avoided. Therefore do not waste your energies and efforts and those of journal editors and peer reviewers or try the patience of readers. Conversely, don’t be so coy about your writing that you constantly delay submitting anything for publication because it isn’t yet ‘perfect’. Perfection is a chimera – it can’t be achieved and you can waste a lot of time and energy seeking the holy grail of the Perfect Publishable Paper. Here is a list of the sorts of papers that you might be interested in writing for publication: • A paper describing and analysing your empirical or archival data Samplefrom a research project. This can be written at various stages in the research process – you don’t have to wait until the project is completed to write about it. Often researchers find it useful to publish ‘along the way’ once they have appropriate data to comment on. Of course, you should publish articles (and/or books) on completed research projects too. • Most journals have special issues around particular themes from time to time. The themes are generally broad and, with imagination, you may be able to craft your research into a paper that fits them. Boden(3)-04.qxd 11/9/2004 11:08 AM Page 25 Publishing Articles in Academic Journals 25 • A review essay, which takes a critical look at a range of literature in your field, synthesising it and building on it to develop new insights. This can be a good one if you are doing a doctorate and therefore having to really master a whole field of literature. • A ‘think piece’ which develops theoretical insights and ideas within your field of enquiry. • A response to someone else’s work. You are more likely to do this when you disagree with someone, but sometimes journals invite specific individuals to respond to a particular piece of work. • A methodological reflection in which you explore problems and dilemmas that may have arisen in the course of your research. Some fields give rise to much more of this kind of writing than others. • Some journals have slots for shorter, less developed ‘work in progress’ reports. These may include a fairly straightforward description of an on-going research project. They can be a good way of getting into print when you are relatively inexperienced or anxious to get a major project ‘on the map’. • Other journals invite ‘opinion pieces’ about issues that are of current importance.

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